A World Without Print

The essay was interesting to read but I didn't learn much of anything new about how children acquire language through reading or writing. After a few psychology and education classes about children I'm not surprise to read that environment is the major compound in children's development. Though, i found interesting the way Jenny could locate new place asking over the phone physical landmarks such as the shape and color of a sign for instance (p410). How her life is restricted in a lot of ways like going shopping at the same stores because she knows their layout. I never thought about how difficult it is for people like her to live in our society, it like been imprisoned and free at the same time.
Even though the Appalachians have a heavy stereotype of uncivilized, ignorant and immoral people Purcell-Gates shows their life (Jenny and big Donny) not so different of what we have in mind of a "normal life style". Jenny cares about her children and wants them to learn how to write and read, she understand the necessity of it. She wants them to have a better life and it is what most parents want for their children. Donny shows manual skills beyond what most of children of his age can do and it is a prove of intelligence and this because parents teach them skills that are relevant of their "culture". It is interesting to see that our brain can be wired differently because of our stimulus in our first years of life. I wished I've read a little more about Purcell-Gates' study and how she proceeded to develop writing and reading skills with Jenny and Donny and the outcome after these two years of study....I was expecting more from this essay.